View source for The Tablet

{{Short description|Catholic newspaper published in London}}
{{about|the London publication|other uses}}

{{Infobox magazine
|title = The Tablet
|logo = The Tablet logo.svg
|logo_size = 200px
|image = 
|image_size = 
|image_caption = 
|editor = Brendan Walsh
|editor_title = 
|previous_editor = 
|frequency = Weekly (except Christmas)
|total_circulation = 18,772 (publisher's statement)
|circulation_year = 2017
|category = [[Catholicism]]
|company = Tablet Publishing Company
|publisher = 
|firstdate = 16 May 1840
|country = [[United Kingdom]]
|based = 
|language = [[English language|English]]
|website = [http://www.thetablet.co.uk/ thetablet.co.uk]
|issn = 0039-8837
}}

'''''The Tablet''''' is a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] international weekly review published in [[London]].<ref>{{cite news | last =Bell | first =Matthew | title ='There's nothing weird about being a Catholic and a liberal', says 'Tablet' editor  | newspaper =[[The Independent]] | location =UK | date =12 September 2010 | url =https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/theres-nothing-weird-about-being-a-catholic-and-a-liberal-says-tablet-editor-2076829.html | access-date =10 November 2013}}</ref> Brendan Walsh, previously literary editor and then acting editor, was appointed editor in July 2017.<ref name="thetablet1">{{cite web|url=http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/7461/0/the-tablet-appoints-brendan-walsh-as-editor- |title=The Tablet appoints Brendan Walsh as editor |publisher=Thetablet.co.uk |access-date=2018-04-05}}</ref>

==History==
''The Tablet'' was launched in 1840 by a [[Quaker]] convert to [[Catholicism]], [[Frederick Lucas]], 10 years before the [[Universalis Ecclesiae|restoration]] of the [[Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales|Catholic hierarchy]] in [[Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales|England and Wales]]. It is the second-oldest surviving weekly journal in Britain.<ref name=aboutus>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetablet.co.uk/about |title=About us |publisher=Thetablet.co.uk |access-date=2019-11-01}}</ref>

For the first 28 years of its life, ''The Tablet'' was owned by [[laity#Roman Catholic|lay]] Catholics. Following the death of Lucas in 1855, it was purchased by John Edward Wallis, a Catholic barrister of the [[Inner Temple]]. Wallis continued as owner and editor until resigning and putting the newspaper up for sale in 1868.

In 1868, [[The Reverend#Roman Catholic|the Rev.]] [[Herbert Vaughan]] (who was later made a [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|cardinal]]), who had founded the only British Catholic missionary society, the [[Mill Hill Missionaries]],<ref>{{cite web | url=https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios1893.htm#Vaughan | title=The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church: Vaughan, Herbert | publisher=Florida International University Libraries <!--date=1998-2013--> | access-date=14 November 2013 | author=Miranda, Salvador}}</ref> purchased the journal just before the [[First Vatican Council]], which defined [[papal infallibility]]. At his death he bequeathed the journal to the [[Archbishop of Westminster|Archbishops of Westminster]], the profits to be divided between Westminster Cathedral and the Mill Hill Missionaries.{{Citation needed|date=November 2013}} ''The Tablet'' was owned by successive Archbishops of Westminster for 67 years. In 1935, [[Archbishop]] (later Cardinal) [[Arthur Hinsley]] sold the journal to a group of Catholic laymen. In 1976 ownership passed to the Tablet Trust, a registered charity.<ref>{{EW charity|271537|The Tablet Trust}}</ref>

From 1936 to 1967, the review was edited by [[Douglas Woodruff]], formerly of ''[[The Times]]'', a historian and reputed wit whose hero was [[Hilaire Belloc]].<ref>{{cite journal | url=http://www.cercles.com/review/r61/Lothian.html | title=The Making and Unmaking of the English Catholic Intellectual Community, 1910-1950 | publisher=Cercles (Revue pluridisciplinaire du monde anglophone) | date=2012 | access-date=14 November 2013 | author=Gilley, Sheridan | journal=Europaea | issn=1292-8968}}</ref> His wide range of contacts and his knowledge of international affairs made the paper, it was said,{{who|date=November 2013}} essential reading in embassies around the world. He restored the fortunes of ''The Tablet'', which had declined steeply. For many years (1938–1961) he was assisted by [[Michael Derrick]], who after the Second World War was often acting editor. Woodruff was followed as editor by the publisher and, like [[Douglas Woodruff|Woodruff]], part-owner [[Tom Burns (publisher)|Tom Burns]], who served from 1967 to 1982. Burns, a conservative in his political views, was a progressive on church matters, firmly in favour of the [[Second Vatican Council|Vatican II]] church reforms. A watershed came in 1968, when ''The Tablet'' took an editorial stance at odds with [[Pope Paul VI]]'s encyclical ''[[Humanae vitae]]'', which restated the traditional teaching against artificial contraception. Burns was followed by the BBC producer John Wilkins, who had been Burns's assistant from 1967 to 1971. Under his editorship the journal's political stance was seen as centre-left. The paper continued to have a distinctive voice, consistently advocating further changes in the church's post-Vatican II life and doctrine. Circulation climbed steadily throughout Wilkins's 21-year tenure. He retired at the end of 2003. [[Catherine Pepinster]],<ref name="Thanksgiving">{{cite news | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32753885 | title=Thanksgiving service for The Tablet's 175th birthday | work=[[BBC News]] | date=16 May 2015 | access-date=16 May 2015}}</ref> formerly executive editor of ''[[The Independent on Sunday]]'', became the first female editor of ''The Tablet'' in 2004.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060409080542/http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article352295.ece The Independent], March 20, 2006. </ref> She said that "the journal will continue to provide a forum for 'progressive, but responsible Catholic thinking, a place where orthodoxy is at home but ideas are welcome'."<ref name=aboutus/> In 2012 [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] journalist [[Julie Etchingham]] became the review's first guest editor, leading a special issue on the [[CAFOD]] charity.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.cafod.org.uk/News/UK-News/Special-Edition-of-The-Tablet | title=CAFOD's 50th Anniversary: Special Edition of The Tablet | publisher=CAFOD | date=28 November 2012 | access-date=14 November 2013}}</ref> On succeeding Catherine Pepinster as editor on 12 July 2017, Brendan Walsh said: 'I will do all I can to cherish and protect its values and the quality of its journalism.'<ref name="thetablet1"/>

Contributors to ''The Tablet'' have included [[Pope]]s [[Pope Benedict XVI|Benedict XVI]] and [[Pope Paul VI|Paul VI]] (while cardinals), the novelists [[Evelyn Waugh]] and [[Graham Greene]], [[Mark Lawson]], [[Francine Stock]], [[Peter Hennessy]], [[Henry Wansbrough]] and [[Bernard Green]].<ref name=aboutus/>

==Notes and references==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[http://www.thetablet.co.uk/ Official website]
{{Catholic Church footer}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tablet}}
[[Category:Catholicism in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Newspapers published in London]]
[[Category:Newspapers established in 1840]]
[[Category:Catholic newspapers]]
[[Category:Weekly newspapers published in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1840 establishments in England]]